I have this very moment finished reading a novel called The Vicar of Wakefield [by Oliver Goldsmith].... It appears to me, to be i...mpossible any person could read this book through with a dry eye and yet, I don't much like it.... There is but very little story, the plot is thin, the incidents very rare, the sentiments uncommon, the vicar is contented, humble, pious, virtuous--but upon the whole the book has not at all satisfied my expectations.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

The clergyman is expected to be a kind of human Sunday. Things must not be done in him which are venial in the week-day classes. H...e is paid for this business of leading a stricter life than other people. It is his raison d'être.... This is why the clergyman is so often called a "vicar"Mhe being the person whose vicarious goodness is to stand for that of those entrusted to his charge.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Latin America can no longer tolerate being a haven for United States liberals who cannot make their point at home, an outlet for a...postles too "apostolic" to find their vocation as competent professionals within their own community. The hardware salesman threatens to dump second-rate imitations of parishes, schools and catechisms--out-moded even in the United States--all around the continent. The traveling escapist threatens further to confuse a foreign world with his superficial protests, which are not viable even at home.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

The beginner's well-known propensity for obtruding upon his own privacy, by introducing himself, or a vicar, into his first novel,... owes less to the attraction of a ready theme than to the relief of getting rid of oneself, before going on to better things.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

The war shook down the Tsardom, an unspeakable abomination, and made an end of the new German Empire and the old Apostolic Austria...n one. It ... gave votes and seats in Parliament to women.... But if society can be reformed only by the accidental results of horrible catastrophes ... what hope is there for mankind in them? The war was a horror and everybody is the worse for it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »